WIND TURBINE ROTOR BLADE

Abstract

A wind turbine rotor blade includes a deformation arrangement, which deformation arrangement includes a tensioning device; an anchor; a cable extending in a longitudinal direction along a surface of the pressure side of the rotor blade, wherein the cable has an inboard end attached to the tensioning device and an outboard end attached to the anchor, which anchor is positioned further outboard than the tensioning device and wherein the tensioning device is configured to adjust the tension of the cable in response to a tensioning device control signal to effect a deformation of the rotor blade in the upwind direction. A wind turbine and a method of operating a wind turbine is also provided.

Claims

1. A wind turbine rotor blade comprising a deformation arrangement, which deformation arrangement comprises a tensioning device; an anchor; a cable extending in a longitudinal direction along a surface of the pressure side of the rotor blade, wherein the cable has an inboard end attached to the tensioning device and an outboard end attached to the anchor, which anchor is positioned further outboard than the tensioning device; a series of cable guides to define the path of the cable; wherein the anchor and the cable guides are partially embedded in the body of the rotor blade at the interior surface of the pressure side; and wherein the tensioning device is configured to adjust the tension of the cable in response to a tensioning device control signal to effect a deformation of the rotor blade in the upwind direction.

2. The wind turbine rotor blade according to claim 1, wherein components the deformation arrangement are arranged in the interior of the rotor blade.

3. The wind turbine rotor blade according to claim 1, wherein components of the deformation arrangement are arranged to effect a contraction of the rotor blade in an upwind direction.

4. The wind turbine rotor blade according to claim 1, wherein a cable guide has an aperture through which the cable passes, the aperture being at a distance above the interior surface of the pressure side.

5. The wind turbine rotor blade according to claim 1, wherein a tensioning device is arranged in the root region 2 of the rotor blade.

6. The wind turbine rotor blade according to claim 1, wherein the deformation arrangement comprises a plurality of cables and at least one series of cable guides to define the paths of the cables.

7. The wind turbine rotor blade according to claim 6, wherein the first ends of the cables are attached to a single tensioning device.

8. The wind turbine rotor blade according to claim 1, wherein the deformation arrangement comprises a plurality of anchors arranged at intervals along an outboard region of the rotor blade.

9. The wind turbine rotor blade according to claim 1, wherein the anchor and the cable guides are incorporated in the body of the rotor blade during a moulding process.

10. A wind turbine comprising a number of rotor blades according to claim 1; a monitoring arrangement realized to determine a downwind deflection of a rotor blade from wind loading; an analysis unit configured to determine a corrective tensile force to be exerted by the deformation arrangement of that rotor blade to counteract the downwind deflection; and a tensioning device control unit configured to issue a corresponding tensioning device control signal to the tensioning device of that deformation arrangement.

11. The wind turbine according to claim 10, configured to determine a corrective tensile force for each rotor blade independently.

12. The wind turbine according to claim 10, wherein each rotor blade comprises an inherent curvature in the upwind direction.

13. A method of operating the wind turbine according to claim 10, which method comprises the steps of determining a downwind deflection of a rotor blade from wind loading; determining the magnitude of a corrective tensile force to be exerted by the deformation arrangement of that rotor blade to counteract the downwind deflection; generating a tensioning device control signal on the basis of the corrective tensile force magnitude; and issuing the tensioning device control signal to the tensioning device of that rotor blade deformation arrangement.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the deflection of a rotor blade is determined from a strain sensor arrangement and/or from a wind speed monitoring arrangement.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein the step of computing a corrective tensile force magnitude is carried out when wind speed exceeds a minimum threshold.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

[0034] Some of the embodiments will be described in detail, with reference to the following figures, wherein like designations denote like members, wherein:

[0035] FIG. 1 shows a wind turbine;

[0036] FIG. 2 illustrates deflection of a rotor blade;

[0037] FIG. 3 shows a schematic of a rotor blade according to the invention;

[0038] FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of a control arrangement in an embodiment of the inventive wind turbine;

[0039] FIG. 5 shows curves associated with the inventive rotor blade during normal operation;

[0040] FIG. 6 shows curves associated with a conventional rotor blade during normal operation;

[0041] FIG. 7 shows . . . ;

[0042] FIG. 8 shows embodiments of the inventive rotor blade; and

[0043] FIG. 9 shows a cross-section through a rotor blade airfoil in an exemplary embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0044] FIG. 1 shows a wind turbine 2 of the most common type in use at present. The wind turbine 2 has an aerodynamic rotor comprising three rotor blades 20 attached to a hub 21. Rotation of the aerodynamic rotor causes rotation of a generator rotor, so that output power can be exported by the wind turbine 2.

[0045] The rotor blades 20 are shaped to optimize the amount of energy that can be extracted from the wind. To this end, a rotor blade 20 has an airfoil portion over much of its length, and the shape of the rotor blade transitions from a generally circular shape at the root end 20R to the flatter airfoil portion 20A, ultimately tapering to a thin tip 20T. The length of a rotor blade can be in the order of 80 m or more. This type of rotor blade may undergo significant deflection in the downwind direction, as illustrated in FIG. 2, which shows how the rotor blades 20 of such a wind turbine may be deflected by high wind loading in the downwind direction DW, i.e. in the direction of the tower 22. The downwind side DW and upwind side UW of the aerodynamic rotor are indicated. In this exemplary wind turbine, the axis of rotation is tilted upwards by several degrees and the rotor blades are pre-bent as indicated by the ghost outlines that show their resting shape in low wind conditions.

[0046] FIG. 3 shows a schematic of a rotor blade according to embodiments of the invention. The diagram is a view of the rotor blade looking at the trailing edge TE. It shall be noted that the axes are not to the same scale. The diameter at the root end 20R is in the order of 3-4 m (X-axis), and the rotor blade length is in the order of 80-90 m (Y-axis). The pressure side 20P and suction side 20S of the rotor blade 20 are shown as indicated. It shall be assumed that the wind turbine is controlled so that its aerodynamic rotor always faces upwind UW during normal operation.

[0047] The diagram shows a deflection shape (dotted line) to indicate the shape of an equivalent conventional rotor blade 20X under high wind conditions without corrective pitch control. Deflection can be measured from a reference, for example relative to a vertical line extending through 0 of the X-axis. The significant tip-to-tower deflection X of the conventional rotor blade 20X can have undesirable effects such as fatigue loading, tower collision, etc. For this reason, a conventional rotor blade is generally pitched out of the wind to decrease the tip-to-tower deflection X, resulting in a reduction in output power during normal operation.

[0048] In the inventive rotor blade 20, such extreme downwind deflection is prevented by its deformation arrangement, indicated here schematically to comprise a tensioning device 10, a cable 11, an anchor 12, and a number of cable guides 13. The outboard end of the cable 11 is secured to the anchor 12, which in turn is secured to the interior surface of the pressure side 20P. In response to a tensioning device control signal, the tensioning device 10 can adjust the tension in the cable 11. When the cable tension is increased, the resulting tensile force in the cable 11 causes the rotor blade 20 to deflect in the upwind direction UW, i.e. the pressure side undergoes compression.

[0049] The tensioning device 10 can be an electric winch, for example. A tensioning device control signal 320 to the winch can control the winch motor in the desired manner. The tensioning device control signal 320 can originate from a tensioning device control unit 32 as indicated in FIG. 4, which shows a block diagram of a wind turbine control arrangement 3. In this exemplary embodiment, a monitoring arrangement 30 determines the downwind deflection 300 associated with the momentary wind loading on a rotor blade 20. The monitoring arrangement 30 may base its computations on relevant input variables such as wind speed, rotor blade angular position, rotor blade pitch angle etc., which can be supplied by the wind turbine controller WTC. An analysis unit 31 determines the magnitude of the corrective tensile force that must be exerted by the deformation arrangement 1 (indicated here only schematically) of that rotor blade in order to maintain the shape of the rotor blade, i.e. in order to prevent or counteract the predicted downward deflection. The analysis unit 31 may be provided with any relevant information such as the rotor azimuth angle, the rotor blade pitch angle, blade loading, a measurement of tip-to-tower clearance etc., which can be supplied by the wind turbine controller WTC. In one example, the monitoring arrangement 30 may determine that the current wind loading would result in a deflection of 3 m relative to a reference. The analysis unit 31, knowing the present state of the deformation arrangement 1, determines the magnitude of the tensile force that will be required to counteract the wind loading to avoid downwind deflection. For example, depending on the system design and the physical properties of the rotor blade, the magnitude of the tensile force can be in the order of 100 kN. The tensioning device control unit 32 translates the force magnitude 310 into an appropriate tensioning device control signal 320 that is then issued to the tensioning device of the deformation arrangement 1 of that rotor blade. In this way, the control arrangement 3 mitigates, prevents or counteracts the downwind deflection of that rotor blade.

[0050] The exemplary control arrangement 3 described above comprises the monitoring arrangement 30, the analysis unit 31, and the tensioning device control unit 32. One or more components of the control arrangement can be realised locally in a wind turbine or at a remote location.

[0051] The computations described above can be carried out for all three rotor blades collectively, i.e. a single force magnitude 310 is determined and converted into a corrective tensioning device control signal 320 that is issued to the deformation arrangements of all three rotor blades. However, since the downwind deflection is affected by wind shear and angular rotor blade position, the downwind deflection 300, corrective force magnitude 310 and tensioning device control signal 320 can be computed independently for each rotor blade.

[0052] Since wind loading on the rotor blades will fluctuate, the corrective force magnitude 310 can fluctuate accordingly. This is indicated in FIG. 5, which shows curves for wind load 51, predicted downwind deflection 52, corrective tensile force magnitude 53 and actual downwind deflection 54 respectively for a rotor blade according to embodiments of the invention. The diagram shows that corrective tensile force (exerted in the cables of the deformation arrangement) prevents significant downwind deflection. This pre-emptive or corrective deformation of the rotor blades means that the wind turbine controller does not need to adjust the pitch angle to avoid rotor blade damage, but can continue to operate at the favourable high power output. The pitch angle and power output can remain essentially constant. The predicted downwind deflection 52 may correspond to the output of the monitoring arrangement 30, and the corrective tensile force magnitude 53 may correspond to the output 310 of the analysis unit 31 as explained in FIG. 4 above.

[0053] The conventional approach of adjusting the pitch angle to mitigate downwind deflection is illustrated in FIG. 6, which shows curves for wind load 61, downwind deflection 62, pitch angle correction 63 and power output 64 respectively. The diagram illustrates how downwind deflection can only be avoided by adjusting the rotor blade pitch angle, which in turn results in a decrease in output power.

[0054] FIG. 7 shows a schematic diagram of a possible embodiment of the inventive rotor blade 20, indicating the deformation arrangement 1 in the interior of the rotor blade. The diagram shows an electric winch 10 as tensioning device in the root end of the rotor blade. An anchor 12 is securely attached in an outboard end of the rotor blade, close to the tip 20T. The anchor 12 may have been partially embedded in the body of the rotor blade during a moulding process, for instance. A cable 11 extends from the winch 10 to the anchor 12 and passes through a number of cable guides 13 which ensure that the cable 11 remains at a constant distance from the pressure side interior surface 200. The cable 11 can be realised as a Bowden cable, i.e. as a wire rope protected by a flexible housing. The cable guides 13 are mounted on the interior face of the pressure side, for example by partial embedding during the moulding procedure. The outboard end 11 out of the cable 11 is attached to the anchor 12. The inboard end 1 in of the cable 11 is connected to the winch 10 and can be displaced by pulling in or letting out, depending on the tensioning device control signal 320 received from a tensioning device control unit as described above.

[0055] FIG. 8 shows a schematic diagram of another possible embodiment of the inventive rotor blade 20. Here, two tensioning devices 10 are installed in the root end 20R of the rotor blade 20, and four anchors 12 are provided at intervals in the outboard end of the rotor blade. Two cables 11 extend from each tensioning device 10 and terminate separately at anchors 12 (passing through cable guides 13 as described above). The tensioning devices 10 receive the same tensioning device control signal 320, and operate to displace each cable 11 by the same amount.

[0056] FIG. 9 shows a cross-section through a rotor blade airfoil 20A in an exemplary embodiment of the invention. The diagram shows how a cable guide 13 is partially embedded in the body of the rotor blade 20 to protrude from the interior surface 200 of the pressure side 20P. The cable guide 13 has an aperture 13A through which the cable 11 passes, the aperture being at a distance above the interior surface 200 of the pressure side 20P so that the cable 11 always follows a defined path, regardless of the curvature or deformation of the rotor blade 20. In this way, the cable 11 does not lie directly on the interior surface 200 of the rotor blade 20. In this exemplary realization, two cable arrangements are deployed, one in relative proximity to the leading edge LE and one in relative proximity to the trailing edge TE. The diagram also indicates a shear web with spar caps, which serve to convey structural strength to the rotor blade 20.

[0057] Although the present invention has been disclosed in the form of preferred embodiments and variations thereon, it will be understood that numerous additional modifications and variations could be made thereto without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, it is possible to arrange one or more components of the deformation arrangement on the outside of the rotor blade. In another embodiment, the tensioning cable could be incorporated into the lightning protection system (LPS) of a rotor blade, for example to act as a down conductor. In such an embodiment, the cable could be electrically connected to a receptor at the rotor blade exterior. Alternatively, an anchor of the deformation arrangement could be realised to also function as a lightning receptor. The principle of the invention could also be applied to other realisations, for example using an arrangement with a toothed belt or chain engaging with a motor-driven sprocket, instead of a cable and motor-driven winch.

[0058] For the sake of clarity, it is to be understood that the use of a or an throughout this application does not exclude a plurality, and comprising does not exclude other steps or elements.